North Korea on Thursday condemned the United States for sending its strategic bombers and stealth jets to Korea in response to its latest launch of a missile which flew over Japan, calling the move a "rash" act.
Four F-35B stealth jets and two B-1B strategic bombers from the US trained with South Korea's F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, the final day of the 11-day Seoul-Washington joint military drills.
"The wild military acts of the enemies are nothing but the rash act of those taken aback" by North Korea's missile launch as the first military operation in the Pacific, the Korean Central News Agency said.
This photo released by North Korea`s state news agency on Aug. 30, 2017, shows North Korea`s firing of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which flew over Japan a day earlier. (Yonhap)
North Korea fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile from Pyongyang early Tuesday. After the provocation, US President Donald Trump said that "all options are on the table."
The North's leader Kim Jong-un said that the launch was a "prelude" to containing the US territory of Guam, near which the country earlier threatened to fire four missiles. He called for more missile tests targeting locations in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang rejected the adoption of a statement condemning its latest missile firing by the United Nations Security Council.
A spokesman at North Korea's foreign ministry claimed that the UNSC released the statement distorting the truth as it viewed the North's missile launch as sparking grave security concerns in the region and the world.
North Korea "categorically rejects the 'presidential statement' of the UNSC that flagrantly violated the right to self-defense of a sovereign state," the spokesman was quoted as saying by the KCNA.
The UNSC on Tuesday strongly condemned North Korea's firing of the ballistic missile, calling it an "outrageous" threat. (Yonhap)